Gogic: Arrests in Zubin Potok have unsettled residents; international community should be present on the ground

Political scientist Ognjen Gogic says that yesterday’s arrests of nine Serbs in Zubin Potok have further unsettled residents of the municipality, who are living in fear due to repeated police operations and a lack of sufficient information about what is happening.

“The police had already been there several months ago, questioning residents, taking people in for questioning and releasing some of them. Yesterday, the police carried out their most intensive operation yet, during which nine local residents were arrested. Yesterday’s event, as well as everything that has been happening over the past several months, has caused considerable anxiety among the local population because they simply do not know what this is about, what is happening, what the police expect from them or what they themselves can expect. From what they have told me, I hear them saying that nothing would surprise them, that they expect someone could come knocking on their door in the middle of the night, and that they have no predictability or information about what might happen next,” said Gogic, who yesterday visited villages in the Mokra Gora area of the Zubin Potok municipality where those arrested live and where mass graves have been discovered.

Since the investigation concerns alleged war crimes, Gogic said that the authorities had an obligation to conduct investigations, but that care should be taken to ensure that operations were carried out in a manner that caused as little distress as possible to the local population.

“The police are trying to obtain information through them, even though a long period has elapsed since the armed conflict and since a war crime was presumably committed in that area. At the same time, the terrain is very specific—mountains, forests and remote wilderness,” he noted, adding that because of the structure and remoteness of the villages, many residents were unaware of circumstances or events that may have occurred there decades ago.

As he pointed out, one of those arrested was only 15 years old at the time of the wartime events, which, he said, raised the question of what such a person could have known.

“There is no trust between the local population and the police. The incident involving Nenad Raskovic was recorded in that area. There is a need to investigate these events, conduct inquiries and establish the circumstances, but at the same time efforts must be made to cause as little distress as possible to the population. People there live in a kind of isolation, there are many elderly residents, and this genuinely causes them great anxiety. For the sake of the population’s security, the international community should be more extensively involved and should be present on the ground when such operations are carried out,” Gogic said.

Nevertheless, to the extent that it would not jeopardize the investigation, residents should be informed about the plans and intentions of the competent institutions, he said, in order to reduce fear and uncertainty over what might happen in the future.

“The situation is extremely delicate because human remains have indeed been found and there are serious suspicions that a war crime was committed. On the other hand, this must be balanced against the need to protect the population living there today, which is highly vulnerable. The situation should be handled with great care,” Gogic concluded.